1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a self-heating disk drive.
2. Description of the Prior Art and Related Information
Today, computing devices such as personal computers, personal digital assistants, cell-phones, etc., are routinely used at work, at home, and everywhere in-between. Computing devices advantageously enable the use of application specific software, file sharing, the creation of electronic documents, and electronic communication and commerce through the Internet and other computer networks. Typically, each computing device has a storage peripheral such as a disk drive.
A huge market exists for disk drives for mass-market computing devices, such as desktop computers and laptop computers, as well as for small form factor (SFF) disk drives for use in mobile computing devices (e.g. personal digital assistants (PDAs), cell-phones, digital cameras, etc.). To be competitive, a disk drive should be relatively inexpensive and provide substantial capacity, rapid access to data, and reliable performance.
Typically, the main assemblies of a disk drive are a head disk assembly (HDA) and a printed circuit board assembly (PCBA). The head disk assembly includes an enclosure including a base and a cover, at least one disk having at least one recording surface, a spindle motor for causing each disk to rotate, and an actuator arrangement. The PCBA generally includes circuitry for processing signals and controlling operations in the disk drive.
An actuator arrangement that is commonly used in hard disk drives is a rotary actuator arrangement included as part of a head stack assembly (HSA) that includes a collection of elements of the head disk assembly. The collection typically includes certain prefabricated subassemblies and certain components that are incorporated into the head disk assembly. For example, a prefabricated head stack assembly (HSA) may include a pivot bearing cartridge, a rotary actuator arrangement, permanent magnets and an arrangement for supporting the magnets to produce a magnetic field for a voice coil motor (VCM).
The rotary actuator arrangement of the HSA may also include a coil, forming another part of the VCM, an actuator body having a bore through it, and a plurality of arms projecting parallel to each other and perpendicular to the axis of the bore. The rotary actuator arrangement of the HSA may also include head gimbal assemblies (HGAs) that are supported by the actuator arms. Each HGA typically includes a load beam and a head supported by the load beam. The head is positioned over a track on a recording surface of the disk to write or read data to or from the track, respectively.
As disk drives are being utilized more and more with mobile devices (e.g. PDAs, cell-phones, etc.), disk drives are increasingly being subjected to very cold operating environments. For example, it is not uncommon for cell-phones and PDAs to be utilized in below freezing environments.
Unfortunately, if a disk drive is powered on while operating in a very cold or freezing environment, damage may occur to components of the disk drive, and/or disk drive performance may be severely compromised. For example, at low temperatures, there is poor lube mobility associated with the spindle motor, and read/write heads typically perform poorly.
There is therefore a need for an effective, efficient means to self-heat a disk drive.